ABSTRACT
On 20 June 2011, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in a speech said that, since March 2011, as many as 1,500 people had drowned in the Mediterranean. It is estimated that roughly one in ten attempting the crossing have died. 2 Although the sudden departure of many migrants from Tunisia and Libya in the spring of 2011 seems exceptional, the number of fatalities fits in a general upward trend.
